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Friday, 22 September 2006

In Nigeria we have a seemingly mature perspective of death especially when the deceased was full of years with children, grand-children and great grand-children. In fact, I once attended the Christian wake of a prominent Nigerian who died at 89, what I noticed was that no one was mourning in black, but everyone was in a radiant blue.

Basically, we rejoice with the survivors when a full life with generations of issues predeceases their offspring – they are congratulated and the deceased is lauded.

This brings to memory the famous women of Nigeria who during the struggles for Nigerian independence ensured that the voice of hand that rocks the cradle was not silent as we determined our future. People like Mrs. Ransome-Kuti, Mrs. Oyinkan Abayomi and Lady Ademola blazed the trail in the emancipation of women in Nigeria, to them; a great debt of gratitude is owed.

The source article on ThisdayOnline does this great departed no honour; now, my blog is not perfect, I do proofread and check my spelling and grammar many times over but sometime fail to see errors.

Rotten journalism

ThisDayOnline is a newspaper of journalists who produce copy in English; it would probably have an editor that oversees all material before it is published for global viewing.

How Mrs Ekpo’s son who announced her death twice acquired the female gender in their copy is not only annoying, it is sloppy journalism, leaving much to be desired.

Mr Eddy Ekpo would have confirmed that his mother died in hospital and remains of his mother would be returned to the family home in due course. Mrs Ekpo, having passed on, would now acquire the possessive past tense of having had 12 grand-children and so many more great grand-children, regardless of the living status of the children.

Naijablog has time and again lamented the poor quality of Nigerian journalism; this example just shows there is much to be done about people who write for a profession.

Beyond all this, Mrs. Margaret Ekpo who served as representative on the Eastern House of Chiefs from 1948-1966 and was a delegate to Nigerian Constitutional Conference in the 1950s and a Nigerian delegate to international conferences in the 1960s – she was a worthy delegate – my her soul find repose as we remember her.